Hey all,

I have a few questions concerning BOINC 5.2.7 and running it on college campus computers.
I am a work-study student at my local community college. I have been interested in using a few computer labs to run BOINC in the lab computers' spare CPU time (since they sit idle most of the time except during the 50 minute class sessions). The main thing that could be a possible problem is that ALL the student computers have Deepfreeze installed on them. I'm sure some of you know what Deepfreeze is but if you don't, it basically freezes the install of Windows to a set image. You can install things and create/copy files normally, but if you reboot, they are gone for good and Windows is set back to that previous state. I haven't worked with Deepfreeze, but I think that unless you can set Deepfreeze to NOT reset a particular folder (such as the BOINC program folder) OR set the BOINC client to cache it's files to a network drive\\share, any work units that are downloaded and processed, but not uploaded to the specific BOINC project server, will be gone after each reboot. This is my MAIN issue with the ability to do this to at least one computer lab, and then possibly all student computers (if things workout really well lol). Does anyone know if either of these two things are possible to setup? The only other issue I would have is running BOINC as a service and not displaying a window that a student could exit out of and terminate the processing. The other problems are basically solved as they are in each project's preferences - those problems would be as such: processing ONLY during CPU idle time (as not to conflict with student classwork), using only a certain amount of network bandwidth, and limiting the times that the network will be accessed (such as during a period that it's not being used that heavily).
I apologize if this all seems random or unclear. I have little time to get testing done (to implement BOINC/projects into the Norton Ghost images...if I can get it done...)
Also, do you think this could be done with the issue of Deepfreeze and has anyone else attempted this (good/bad results)?

Thanks!

Tavis

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First make sure you have permission to put BOINC on the computers in writting.

If deepfreeze can be set to exclude the BOINC directory tree that is the best way to go.

The other way is to create a disk image that has BOINC installed but not run on it (deleting client_state.xml may achieve this state as well). Also include account*.xml file(s) for the project(s) in this image. When the computer is rebooted and goes to it's original state BOINC will start and create all the subsidiary files and attach to the project(s) associated with the account*.xml file(s). You will have to merge computers frequently and it will lose all partial work at each reboot. You should definately set a very low queue, 0.1 or less, to minimize wasted work. It may be an idea to limit the number of projects per computer as well.

Good Luck!

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

Thanks for your quick reply.

I am attempting to find out if DeepFreeze can be set to not restore certain folders.

Is there anyway that you can set the BOINC core to store files on a mapped drive or UNC share? That would open me up to run more processing-intensive projects that take a longer time to complete such as the Climate prediction project.
Also, yep, I had the idea to create a Ghost image by project, with the projects already attached so that BOINC wouldn't be reset with no projects each time it was rebooted. That would work as well, but I'd rather have the ability for DeepFreeze to leave the BOINC folder alone or cache to a shared folder (shared folder would probably be better. A student could start to mess with the work unit files if they noticed a mapped drive in My Computer).
Also, do you know if all this can be set to run as a service in Windows to where no window pops up? I know you can set BOINC to install as a service when you install it, but can it support remote management (BOINCView) while running as a service?

Thanks again!

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You can run BOINC off of a network drive, it carries a significent performance penalty though.

To support remote management include a remote_hosts.cfg file in the image.

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

You can run BOINC off of a network drive, it carries a significent performance penalty though.

Gah...I'm assuming the performance hit is from using the CPU working with the NIC =\\
I did find this on Deep Freeze's website:
http://www.faronics.com/whitepapers/DF_RetainUserData.pdf

To support remote management include a remote_hosts.cfg file in the image.

Right. That should be no problem as I am using that and a gui_rpc_auth.cfg and the remote_hosts.cfg now. It's just that BOINC runs in a console (cmd prompt) and not as a service. I would have to reinstall it and chose to run it as a service for that to work. Either that or modify the shortcut to start the service then close the console.

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I am a Systems Administrator with a Community College who is getting ready to install BOINC on a large number of machines. We run deepfreeze as well. You can setup a "thaw" space on the machine that the client can run in. I would suggest strongly that you talk with the IT team at your college. They will know how to do this and you will need permission before installing it on any computer there.

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Crunch with friends - TeAm Anandtech

While I was getting a new hard drive to replace the one that died and before the power supply went. I was running an earlier version of boinc using Knoppix off a windows share. I don't remember seeing a signifigant difference from normal time. The whole program gets put into memory and it usually writes to file every two minutes. I was running just CPDN and setiathome at the time.

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